"Schopenhauer tells us of a colony of porcupines wont to huddle together...able neither to tolerate nor to do without one another, until they discovered that when they stood at a certain distance..they could delight in one another's individuality and enjoy one another's company. Unknown to themselves they'd invented civil association"

Friday, January 1, 2016

Chicago: A Touch of the Middle East in America's Midwest

June
2, 1787

“Mr.
Dickenson moved that the Executive be made removeable by the National
Legislature on the request of a majority of the Legislatures of individual
States. ‘It was necessary he said to
place the power of removing somewhere.’”

Madison’s
Notes, Constitutional Convention

Another damning report on events in Chicago, this one
providing details into the sequence that resulted in a payoff to keep the
Laquan McDonald shooting under wraps followed by predictions that Rahm was
done. He may be, but still the most important detail to emerge in this whole
scandal is that Chicago doesn’t have a procedure for removing a Mayor. As such
a provision would seem rather obviously necessary in a democracy it’s telling
that one doesn’t exist in Chicago.

In truth, the focus on Rahm misses the point. The case in
Chicago, with due allowances made, is rather like our foreign policy problems
in the Middle East. The easy part is removing the current strongman who’s
suddenly been rendered vulnerable. But the essential question is how to bring
about some measure of good government when the institutional norms and support
structure for self-government are absent.

Rahm ousted will still leave the people in place who went
along with the payoff. The activists asserting themselves in this controversy,
are they better or worse than the leaders they are shoving aside? You could
clean house and start from scratch, but what makes you think the voter’s would
choose any more wisely than they have to date? Rahm’s disgrace is well earned
and he deserves to go. But then the same could be said for Mubarak and Gaddafi.UPDATE: this is both a good column and also what I have in mind when I say the point is being missed. http://freebeacon.com/columns/rahm-emanuels-cuban-vacation/